Gerald D'Cunha

“Believe in yourself and there will come a day when others will have no choice  but to believe with you.” - Mufasa O n last Sunday, when my wife and I walked into the cinema hall to watch ‘The Lion King’, the house was almost full… And, it was the second week, mind you! There were grandparents, young parents, young ones and little ones… And, like most of them, my wife and I, too, had watched the original version (1994). And, like, most of them, here we were - dying to watch this one, as well! ‘The Lion King’ is a great story – a story with a heart. What else explains the reason for our ‘dying thirst’ to watch it? We, as human beings, live not on ‘bread’ alone. The body needs bread; agreed. But, our hearts need great stories to keep going. Hence, our spiritual books are, essentially, supremely-told stories… Take ‘The Ramayana’ or ‘The Mahabharata’… Take ‘The Old Testament’ or ‘The New Testament’. To me, they are powerful stories… stories wit...

Pic.: Anand Sreedhar “All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” - William Shakespeare F rankly, the thought, that, the curtain will come down on each and every one of us… yes, this thought doesn’t bother us when we are young… and when our days are glorious. Success, fame, name, wealth and power dominate our consciousness… So much so, that almost all of us prefer to live in a denial… We prefer to think… That, we are here to live forever… That, this fame and name, this wealth and power are here to accompany us forever… That, these people – our children and grandchildren, our friends and associates… they are all going to be there for us, forever… Thus, the thought, that, the curtain will come down on this stage, one day… the sun will set at the end of the day… that, we shall be all alone, stripped of everything that has given us our so-called – identity – yes, we prefer not to think of all this… But,...